David Bowie fans are in for a new aural treat. On June 17th — 50 years and one day after the original British release date, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars — will be issued as a limited edition 50th anniversary half-speed mastered LP and a picture disc, featuring the same master and a replica promotional poster for the album.

According to the album’s press release: “This new pressing was cut on a customized late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original Trident Studios master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios.”

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars June 16, 1972 and peaked at Number Five on the British album charts. The album stalled out at Number 75 in the U.S.

In 1983, David Bowie shed light on how and why the character of “Ziggy Stardust” came to exist: “I think I was quite happy to buy into the idea of reinvention, up until the beginning of the ’80s, really. When I was a teenager, I had it in my mind that I would be a creator of musicals — I sincerely wanted to write musicals for the West End and for Broadway, whatever. I didn’t see much further than that — as a writer. And I really had the idea in my head that people would do my songs. And I was not a natural performer; I didn’t feel at ease onstage — ever. And I had created this one character — ‘Ziggy Stardust’ — that it seemed that I would be the one who played him, because nobody else was doing my songs and the chance of my getting a musical mounted were very slim, and so, I became ‘Ziggy Stardust’ for that period.” (40 OC: . . . for that period)